Mountains to the Sea

Europe is the one continent where you can order breakfast in one language while looking at glaciers and order lunch in another while dipping your toes in the sea. We said goodbye to Austria, and their wonderful bakeries, and headed for Venice by way of the Dolomites. The Dolomites are a very craggy and glaciated region of Northern Italy where they speak German. Our only regret is that we weren't able to stay longer and do some exploration.





By afternoon we were in the lowlands, the Veneto area near Venice and it sure was hot! A campground with a pool was in order and there's no shortage of them here. We set up camp in a peninsula just north of Venice that is, shall we say, a bit of Cancun in Italy. The whole region feels like one of those generic booming tourist developments of Mexico. Huge resorts, restaurants, campgrounds and water parks, all very recently built by the looks of it. It's not exactly what I had in mind when planning our European vacation, but the kids were excited and the pool sure was nice. In our last entry I was pretty sure that we couldn't top the zip-line, but water slides, swimming lagoons, and kid-oriented evening variety shows made the zip-line a distant memory.

We awoke early and headed over to Venice on the ferry. Venice is arguably the most unique city in world, and a joy to visit in spite of the crush of tourists.




We chose not to wait in lines for some of the interesting historical sites and instead we just wandered the back alleys and canals. The kids really got a kick out of seeing a "water world" town where jobs have to get done like a normal city, only using boats. We saw ambulance boats, UPS boats, tow-truck boats, and even a stinky garbage truck boat. We sat on a bridge and enjoyed watching a boat traffic jam and animated Italians give each other "directions" on how to resolve the problem.











We had a great day exploring Venice. We even broke the law and had a picnic outside of the one designated picnicking area! We caught a ferry back to our campsite and got some swimming in and a weird Italian variety show as well. Tomorrow we head south again and may be in Greece by the next internet connection.

Waiting for the cows to come home

We left Hallstatt in the rain and drove over to a little finger of Germany that pokes south into Austria called Berchtesgaden. It's famous for its natural beauty but also as Hitler's summer home. Early in his political career he would spend time in a mountain house there that would eventually become a large, secure compound after he kicked all the locals out. It was bombed heavily toward the end of the war, but a few buildings remain. There is an excellent museum about Hitler and the rise of the Nazis with the best part being a tour of the underground bunker complex that was built in the last years of the war. It was very interesting and somewhat spooky, with old machine gun placements guarding doors and graffiti from the first troops (French) to make entry into the bunker.

Afterwards we headed back into Austria to the town of Lofer, and set up in a nice campsite. Not your average KOA.




Allie and Noelle discovered the campground's play area while Jolene and I sat on the porch with a local beer. The play area had a zip line, slack line, in-ground trampoline, in addition to the slides, swings, and other run-of-the-mill stuff. We finished our beers and joined them in the playground. I'm sure that we've set the bar too high now and a boring old swing set isn't going to be enough anymore.

Leaving town, we were told about a village down canyon that was having its annual festival celebrating the return of the cows from the high meadows to the valley. Arriving in the village, we found folks that were dressed in traditional alpine garb and the band was playing. We attempted to order some interesting local dishes that we saw others enjoying. Unfortunately we received hot dogs, french fries, and a hamburger. I'm sure the waitress ignored my order and yelled at the cook, "Give them the American Special!" Those tardy cows were taking their time coming down from the mountains so we sent the kids out to round them up.




The cows weren't budging so they found some goats that were easier to herd.




We headed south over the Alps and punished poor Dagobert over one of the most impressive roads we've ever driven--the Grossglockner. It wasn't much more than a paved cow-trail with 36 switchbacks by the time we were on flat land again.



We were able to see some huge glaciers close up. Pictures never do the experience justice.



We limped Dagobert into a campground, smoking brakes and all, and the kids set out to find the playground. "What, a lousy slide and teeter-totter? How lame!"

Jolene's New Favorite Place

We explored Jolene's new favorite town in the rain yesterday. Whenever we have to leave a place, Jolene says it was her favorite, I have to convince her to move on, and sure enough the next town becomes her new favorite. I have to agree with her on this one, Hallstatt is my favorite too. It was raining hard when we left the van so the first thing we decided to do was tour the salt mine above town. You first have to ride an airy funicular railroad to get to the mine entrance high above.





The salt mine has been used since prehistoric times, for over 7000 years. They have found many old tools and even a preserved prehistoric body with clothing within the mine, which of course you don't get to see. The salt deposit is still being mined, but from a different part of the mountain now. The only thing they are extracting from the old mine now are truckloads of tourists' euros. In spite of all the interesting history, the tour is hokey with the most mundane sights embellished by cheesy displays. The tour does boast "central Europe's longest underground wooden slide". How's that for an obscure claim to fame! It did keep us out of the rain and my wad of Euros was weighing us down anyhow.

We grabbed some pastries, which the Austrians do very well, and had a snack before exploring the town.




We came across a sporting goods shop where the basement had been converted to a free archaeological tour. It seems that a number of years ago they were doing a remodel of the building and uncovered some interesting things. They found roman walls, an intact forge from hundreds of years ago, and more walls and items from a Hapsburg palace. All that history under one little building, and the tour was short and free!




Noelle and I toured the "bone church", a small sanctuary where they have stacked and decorated skulls and bones that were dug up from the tiny cemetery as it became overcrowded. Most of the skulls were from the 1700's but there is a skull from 1983 complete with a creepy gold tooth.




On the way back to the campsite we came across the ultimate playground. A lakeside park with a zip line, a slide into the lake, and a diving board. This find even had the kids declaring Hallstatt as their favorite.

The Hills are Alive

We made the mistake of breaking down our camp and actually trying to park in a large European city. We don't want to do that again. The girls went on foot to explore Salzburg and I managed to find a parking spot. There is some question to how legal it was but we escaped without a parking ticket. Salzburg is nicely situated with rugged mountains visible from town and a castle overlooking the city. The photos don't do it justice, but the river is a nice turquoise color from the glacial runoff.






It is also the birthplace of Mozart, whose ghost now haunts tourists, scaring them out of their parents' hard-earned coins.






We had a few hours to kill so it seemed like the proper Salzburg thing to do would be to grab coffee and cakes at a plaza-side cafe. The cakes were great and the coffee strong. Exactly what we expected.





We made it back to Dagobert and headed for the hills. Only a few km outside of Salzburg you enter the most beautiful countryside. We had primed the kids for Europe by watching Heidi and The Sound of Music and the countryside looks just like the movies. Dark green meadows blanketing steep hills with little alpine farmhouses clinging to the sides. Austria is very clean and tidy. The bad neighbor here is the guy who didn't plant overflowing flower baskets under the windowsills of his chalet.





We are camping in Hallstatt, a beautiful village crowded onto the shore of a turquoise lake. The valley is like a limestone Yosemite, with towering walls rising right above the campsite. This morning it's raining but we are planning on splurging a little and taking a tour of the salt mine above the city.




I have to mention this Apple iPad that we brought along. It is one device that does everything we need in a compact package. We download all the pictures onto it, it plays music and movies, connects to internet and email of course, holds all of our guidebooks and novels, and it's a GPS too with a database of campsites. The turn-by-turn instructions are a lifesaver and when we do get lost it's usually because we weren't listening closely enough. The only problem is that we only have one iPad and everyone wants to use it!

Awesome Thoughts by Noelley

These are some of the things I love about our trip so far:

-In Cochem, we went to an indoor water park that had six pools, slides, and a wave pool.
-The mall we went to in Salzburg is huge.
-The campsite in Augsburg had a frog pond, a swimming lake, paddle boards, cool boats, and A swim platform.
--ICE CREAM VENDING MACHINES!!!!

I understand why we do long days of driving, because it's worth it! The longest one so far has only been about three hours, which isn't so long, really. Our plane ride was certainly long: 9 hours!

Some things that I don't like so much:

-Being forced to stay awake to get over jet lag. The first three days were awful.
-TOURS!
-Missing my friends and family

Haikus by AZ

On the really long driving days as daddy curses the car, mama tries (and fails) to find where we are on the map, and Noelley sleeps, I keep myself occupied by writing these cool little poems. They don't have rhythm or rhyme and are easy to write. They consist of five syllables on the first line, seven on the second, and five on the last. They are especially fun when you are mad at someone. These are some that I made up.


Rothenburg
Tiny cottages,
Night watchmen tours and brautwurst.
A land in the past.


Dagobert
Loud and colorful
Small, cramped, old and practical
You are now my home.


Spider
Though you feed the birds,
You small, gross eight legged creature,
I will now squash you.


Castles
After a few weeks,
Though beautiful and medeival,
They all looks the same.


Ode To An Eraser
Small, squishy and pink
On the end of a pencil,
You can undo time.


Books
Paper, small, heavy.
Although just words and pictures,
Take me far away.


These are the only times when I don't have fun. Mostly because I have time to think about school, home, and how much I miss everybody.

Saved by the Rain

We took the "Romantic Road" from Rothenburg down to Augsburg, near Munich. It is exactly like its name would imply: a narrow, winding road through the German countryside sprinkled with beautiful villages.



The romance is found in the villages, when poorly marked roundabouts fool the GPS into giving false directions and you and your spouse gaze lovingly into one another's eyes and curse the confusing German roadways, the GPS, and whose idea was this damn trip anyhow. We persisted and found a campground north of Augsburg that had a lake, paddle boards, and pedal cars for the kids.


It was perfect until the rain started. The rain came with a vengeance, making up for the last week of perfect camping weather. We awoke the next morning and drove to the concentration camp at Dachau, only to find that it was closed. The kids were relieved. We walked around and read the interpretive signs in the rain and even stared through the spooky entrance gate. We discussed staying the night and returning in the morning but decided to hit the road instead. It may have been fortunate that it was closed anyhow as the previous nights discussion of the camp and the holocaust brought tears without even seeing any pictures or displays.

It seemed like a good day for driving so we headed in the downpour to Salzburg, Austria. I can't remember driving in a worse rainstorm, with cars slid off the roadway and even the fast lane drivers going slow. I think that a VW camper van is the only way to really experience a road trip in Europe. Sliding the side door open along the side of the road, reaching into the fridge for the makings of a great picnic, and eating at your little table overlooking the countryside.



You also have that specter of an impending breakdown hanging over your head like an iron safe on a frayed rope. I owned a VW van years ago and it was the worst 6 weeks of my life! The old VW ads say Farhvegnugen means "driving pleasure" but darned miserable might be a better translation. The same German engineers that brought you Porsche and BMW thought that it would be a good idea to put the shift lever all the way in the front and the transmission all the way in the back. You don't actually shift gears as much as discover them. It's like searching for a lost item under your bed in the dark, with persistence you might stumble upon what you were looking for. I'm sure that in the well-lit VW design lab a little play in the shifter was acceptable, but navigating narrow, hilly streets in a village with aggressive German drivers on your bumper and hitting fourth instead of second gear is not "driving pleasure". When I look at our map and see hills and curves I don't think scenic, I now think missed shifts and lots of grinding. Knock on wood, but the little van has been great so far and the newer diesel engine is powerful and efficient.

We found a great campsite here in Salzburg and the sun came out again. The kids and I are enjoying a "rest" day while Jolene borrowed a bike to check out the town.

Life in the Slow Lane

We explored the town of Bacharach, walking its narrow streets and admiring its well-preserved old town walls and buildings. That's becoming a common theme for us in this part of Germany. Gawk at old buildings, take shortcuts through alleys barely wide enough to walk, find an ice cream shop, check out the playground, and do it again.



Nighttime in these villages is especially beautiful, with the mellow lighting, and people enjoying outdoor dining at one of the many restaurants.



We also took a short cruise downriver to St. Goar. It's also a nice little town but a few too many souvenir stands for our liking.

We stayed one more night in Bacharach then hit the Autobahn and raced south. Raced may be a bit of an exaggeration. A VW van on the Autobahn is kind of like being the designated driver at a wild party--you get the feeling that everyone is having a lot more fun than you are. A lot of Americans are intrigued by the Autobahn, but it's really just a nice, well-maintained freeway with more disciplined drivers. The important difference is that the cars in the left lane can be going three times as fast as the cars in the right lane. You don't find any grannies poking along in the fast lane. On the rare occasion that I need to pass someone, I double and triple check my mirror to make sure that approaching car isn't going triple-digits, and then I whip out and around the slower car as fast as my VW will let me. Unlike my boyhood Autobahn fantasies, all the cars aren't Porsches and exotic sports cars, but there are a lot of big Mercedes, BMW's, and Audis. They can have their fast lane, I'll poke along with the old Fiats, Citroens, and Vanagons.




We arrived in the medieval town of Rothenburg in late afternoon, set up camp in the much-needed shade, and lounged around for a few hours before heading up to the old part of town. Rothenburg is one of the best preserved old towns in Germany, with intact town walls, a moat, and more beautiful houses. According to the "Night Watchman" tour it was spared the doom of most old towns because of two things. It lost its fortunes a few hundred years back and they didn't have the money to upgrade the town and it was just sort of forgotten for a few centuries. Then in the last weeks of WWII, a stubborn German commander holed up his troops in the town and declared they would have to be bombed out before surrendering. Luckily, a fog settled in delaying the bombing and when the stubborn commander took leave for a few days his subordinates surrendered and saved the town.




We awoke this morning to the sounds of goats, donkeys, and church bells. These uber-campgrounds are surprisingly peaceful. From here we plan on taking the "Romantic Road" south towards Munich.

Finally something fun

After the castle tour we headed to Cochem on the Mosel River, because we knew there was camping and a swimming pool with water slides. We had to pass by dozens of castles and medieval villages, all of them tempting us to stop and explore, but Noelle kept us focused on the mission at hand. She got to spend a few therapeutic hours on the water slides and get a break from history lectures!

After breakfast the next morning we headed to town to tour yet another castle.


This valley is also famous for its white wine and vineyards line the steep canyon walls. There are a number of tourists here, but this time of year it's mostly older Dutch and German couples. The towns are storybook, half-timbered with narrow cobbled streets and every one of them has a church and castle ruin on the hill. If you want to save a few grand and the love of your children then just head to Fantasyland over in Anaheim for the same effect.


The Mosel and Rhine rivers have been important commerce routes since ancient times, and even today there is constant train traffic and ships and barges hauling cargo along the rivers. This was the land of the "robber barons" who built castles along the river and would extort a toll for passage to all the ships trying to make their way. Some castles were actually built in the river with large chains they would string across it to stop traffic until the toll was paid and the chains would then be lowered to allow passage.

We left Cochem and blindly followed the iPad GPS over the narrowest roads it could find to the town of Bacharach on the Rhine river and another Euro campground. The camping in Europe is uber-camping. Trailers packed in tightly, showers, bathrooms, laundry, bar, restaurant, playgrounds. Did I mention the bar?

Schlosses Galore!

We said goodbye to our Prague apartment and caught a bus to Nurnburg, Germany. The kids were thinking school bus or Greyhound and were delighted when a two-story, land yacht of a bus pulled up in front of the station. We then transferred to a high-speed ICE train for the next leg of the trip to Cologne. The ICE trains are very modern and luxurious, yet affordable. They are so smooth and quiet that you don't realize how fast you are going until you pass cars on the freeway and they look like they're standing still--and they're on the Autobahn! .


















It was in Cologne that we met handsome 25 year old Dagobert--our blog's namesake. He's a character, to say the least. This was an internet romance so we had butterflies upon meeting him. Picture us in the Cologne train station parking lot waiting for a stranger, exchanging vast sums of Euros, and getting the operating instructions in broken English. That's only the prelude to jumping in a strange car and trying to navigate out of one of Europe's most crowded cities with an iPad app that we had never even tried out before. Marital bliss I say. I'm just glad I fed the kids a couple of McDoubles before we hit the road.

We were hoping there was camping on the Mosel river and took some back roads to get there. As we passed through a picturesque farming town I realized that we had no food for the next day. We swung into the only grocery store we could find, which turned out to be a canned foods warehouse type of outlet, at 5 minutes until closing. I grabbed a handful of edibles and raced to the checkout where I realized that I had only a few Euros left. I had to save some for camping so I put away the cookies. We managed to find a campground and a fitful nights sleep. There was no coffee the next morning as I didn't realize the stove needed a lighter but we managed and headed off to Burg Eltz, an outstanding castle.




Unfortunately, they were replacing the roof and siding and much of the outside was covered. That damn slate only lasts a few hundred years and then it's kaput! This castle is unique in that the same family has owned it since the 1500's and the interior is about as original as you can get. There were original tapestries, beds, a kitchen, suits of armor. We could write an entire book about this place, but suffice it to say that it was one of the most awe-inspiring things any of us have ever seen. Except Noelle, who really wanted to get back to that trampoline at the campground.

Well, we made it through the first week. One country down, seven to go. It was amazing. Prague is a beautiful town filled with mind-blowingly beautiful buildings.
I like the many bridges over the river that divides the city in half. Although, I don't really care for the hour long history lessons we get daily from our parents.

One of my favorite parts was the Black Light Theatre. It was also amazing. There were odd dances done by odd acters in odd costumes. Since the background was black, the had black harnesses that blended in and made them seem as if they could fly.

I will miss Prague. But I am excited to explore Germany.
-Allie Z

Czech out time

Tonight is our last night in Prague before catching a train to Germany to meet this blog's namesake, Dagobert. Allie and Noelle have been patient with us as we drag them around the town, droning on about architecture, the Velvet Revolution, gothic this and that. This city reads like an architecture textbook, where you can sit in one spot and point out perfectly preserved examples dating from medieval times to modern. Yesterday we rode the street car up to the castle to finish our look around that was interrupted by rain the day before. We jammed into the street car with a bunch of Czech college kids on their way to class. They were excitedly chatting with one another in Czech, which as I mentioned before, we can't understand a word of. Apparently they are interested in the same things that young Americans are because their conversation sounded just like this, "Blah, blah, blah, Facebook. Blah, blah, blah, Angry Birds. Blah, blah, blah, "you da man!""




We love bizarre sculpture and yesterday we ran across some more pieces of outdoor art. We googled "creepy Prague giant baby statues with dented in faces" to find out the meaning and it turns out a famous and controversial Czech sculptor, David Cerny, is responsible. In fact, he did the peeing men we ran across in the last post. It turns out the peeing men are not just randomly peeing, their urine would spell out phrases from famous works of literature, like mischievous boys writing their names in the snow. We sought out another one of his works, good old Wenceslas riding an upside-down dead horse.



We did manage to make it to the castle, and it is huge. In fact, its size is so overwhelming that it's difficult to even get a picture of it. Unfortunately, we arrived at the same time as all the buses with their guided tours. Guidebooks always warn you not to be an "ugly American", well we saw and heard plenty of ugly Japanese, Germans, Russians....you name it.



As large as the castle is we felt the need to escape down a back trail and have a picnic away from the tour groups.Tonight we'll forego our usual Daddy-cheapskate meal of dry bread, cheese, and water and head out to a cafe in the square. We may even find ourselves a hospoda and grab some hovezi gulas s knedlikem and a privo.

Prague in a Fog

We awoke to an overcast day that eventually turned to a downpour. It was a refreshing break from the heat that seems to exacerbate the jet lag. After breakfast we mostly did our favorite big-city thing: wandered the streets aimlessly. It's amazing what you'll come across just by getting off the tourist trail. Prague is a delightful city, but like many attractive places the deluge of tourists and aggressive souvenir vendors can wear thin. We got out early in the morning and had some of the side streets to ourselves. After lunch back at the apartment and a nap, we took the tram up to the Prague Castle. It is by somebody's measurement the largest in the world. It doesn't look like a castle in the traditional Disney sense, but more of a fortified palace. One thing is for certain, it is huge. We got caught up in a torrential rainstorm and the kids were delighted to see the gothic cathedral's gargoyle downspouts doing their job and spitting water away from the stone walls.




Our apartment, the "new" building from the 1800's.




Breakfast at our temporary home.




This is one of the narrowest streets, but that doesn't prevent cars from racing down it. We've had to scramble to shelter in a doorway many times.





Random street sculpture. A still image doesn't do it justice as each man was motorized, with swiveling hips and up-and-down aiming. Kids and adults alike were giggling at this discovery!

We're here!

After a long, sleepless flight we have finally arrived. Actually, it wasn't sleepless for Noelle. There is an advantage to being the smallest one of the group.



The heat wave and jet-lag have made touring Prague a challenge, but we have managed to walk around the narrow cobblestone streets. They are a maze of barely navigable streets arranged helter-skelter around the old town center. Our apartment is in the center of the old town, only a block off the main tourist area but fairly quiet and uncrowded. Yesterday we set out in the heat for the main bridge and tourist office to get a map. We used our intuition to blindly set out in the direction of the bridge and quickly got mixed up in all the alleys, plazas, and dead-ends. Two hours later we found the bridge and got our much-needed map. It turns out had we gone right out of our door instead of left we would have walked one block to the bridge.



View from the Charles Bridge

We like to learn some basic phrases in whatever language is spoken in the countries that we visit. From the moment that we set foot here we realized that it wasn't going to be easy. Czech is a very complicated language, with no words looking similar at all and even the most simple of words being multi-syllable tongue twisters. We simply annoyed the locals trying to stumble through their language so now we just jump straight into English. Prague is very heavy with tourists, but mostly Russians and Germans from what we can tell. In spite of that, it is a great introduction to Europe. An amazing city with incredibly preserved architecture and history.



Escaping the heat along the river.




Gothic spires and sculpture

We're off!

We spent our last days day before the big trip exploring San Francisco with Jolene's parents and nephew. We visited the zoo, ate, slurped tea at the Japanese Tea garden, ate, hiked up the stairs to the Coit Tower, ate, and puzzled over the works of Pablo Picasso at the De Young Museum. And then we ate some more.








Wow. At the base of the Coit Tower, looking over the city.




Mmm. Chocolate and cinnamon french toast. My last real meal for a long time-Allie.



my favorite playground in the world ... but I haven't been to the world yet. this one is in san francisco-Noelle.

Tomorrow morning we get up at o-dark-thirty and catch a flight to Atlanta and then Prague, Czech Republic. We fly out of Atlanta late tomorrow and then wake up in Prague on Thursday. We've never been to Prague but it has been on our to-do list for years.